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Hello, there! I’m so glad you could stop by as I have some cool summer fun to share with you today! Go grab some ice cream, this is a long one. Just sayin’! For some reason I couldn’t get my brain to work on saying things succinctly. (Plus there are 4 cards this time.) So I won’t be offended if you just take a quick scroll through the pics. : )

First let me start with a story. A long time ago our family developed a code word for ice-cream. It seems someone in the family was always getting flowers when they were sick or needed cheering up and one day they finally admitted… ‘I sure would be cheered up a lot more if it was ICE CREAM instead of flowers!’ So, from then on whenever this person was sick we’d ask, ‘would FLOWERS cheer you up?’ and if they said ‘yes’, they got ice cream. Now the whole family uses FLOWERS as code for ICE CREAM. It really does make us feel better! Of course if you get BOTH… that’s just a win-win! : ) When I saw this ‘Ice Cream solves Everything’ sentiment I KNEW I had to make up a card for you-know-who! Who knows, maybe it’ll catch on and some day Mirriam-Webster will have a footnote under ‘flowers’ that says “n. – slang for ice cream in the early 21st century’ Hahahaha!

Of course now that I’ve told the story I see that I should have made a sliding sentiment that said FLOWERS solve everything on top and pulls out to say ICE CREAM! Per usual, I have 20/20 hindsight!! Next time!

The card was based on a sketch from the Inky Paws Challenge #77:

Too bad I finished the card the day AFTER that challenge closed =Ineeded ice cream to ease the disappointment! Just look at these two darling kitties sharing a yummy ice cream cone!

(card #1 above) I have always wanted to do one of these backgrounds where part is colored and part is b&w, so decided to try that. I find it daunting to try to randomly stamp a background, but I tried a couple on regular paper until I got one that I liked and put it in the MISTI and laid my stamp on top of each place I’d stamped, picked it up and restamped it. I was able to crank out 4 copies in relatively quick time.

I didn’t want to cover up too much of the background, so, to make the kitties licking their ice cram cone stand out, I cut out some black paper just a bit larger than they are and put it behind them (I had already put the foam underneath them to pop them up, so the black shadow is down on the card base, making it ever more shadow-y.) Glossy Accents and Liquid pearls help the ice cream look more realistic.

Since the current Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp is Sprinkles & Splatters, I really wanted the sprinkles to pop, so added Nuvo Drops to them and to the kitty noses, tongues (love those cute little lapping tongues!!) and paws. To get Mrs. Calico Kitty’s tail in reverse, I just traced the back side of the stamped image on a light box.

Making the kitty cone: I was in JoAnn Fabrics when they had their 75% off sale and found these cute beads… I thought looked like kittens (they say they’re mice so I added a more kitty-like nose and mouth with a Sakura Identi pen, which stayed on the ceramic (whereas the Sakura Pigma Micron whisker extensions I’d done wiped off the next day), and some pink to the inner ears with a Copic) They reminded me of the kitty cones on my card, so I went looking for something that would look like a waffle cone. I found a Utility Cotton Fabric called, amazingly, Waffle Weave! I drew a semi-circle on a piece of tagboard from a cereal box and cut it out, then cut the fabric slightly larger, and then glued it to the tagboard, folding the edged over and gluing them to the back side. Then I curled it into a cone and glued it together. Once dry, I colored in the debossed waffle squares with a Copic marker. Using a headpin, I made a loop at the top of the kitty and hot glued it in place and hot glued the kitty snuggled inside the ‘waffle cone’. I added some pearlescent seed beads to make the kitty cones hang lower than keys and added a couple of pawprint charms and they were good to go.

I recently told my friend that I remembered after my first day of school, mom would always take me to DQ and that gave me something to look forward to all day… Yep, ice cream solves the tedium of that interminable long first day of school! So I decided to make another card and keychain for my friend’s daughter for her first day of school this week. They had ice cream cones after her first day of school, too! A great tradition has started!! That fits perfectly with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for this week: Back to School.

Since I had more backgrounds with my summer ice cream, I kept on doing cards with that same layout from the previous Inky Paws Challenge. As I’d used the new Finesse alcohol-proof dye ink by Spectrum Noir to stamp the backgrounds, I wanted to try using alcohol inks on them and decided to try Spectrum Noir basics and Copics. FYI, they both worked fine and the Finesse ink didn’t bleed at all.

The Spectrum Noir sheet was a bit darker than I wanted, so I decided to use vellum over most of it. To take a break from coloring, I left this kitty white.

(Card #2 above) Can’t quite place that tag die? I wanted a nice fishtail tag, but the only one I had (Spellbinders Decorative Swallowtail Tags) was too tall, so I snipped it down and ended up with a leftover decorative accent for another project…

For the Copic background, I die cut it and an uncolored sheet together at the same time so they’d be cut exactly the same and made two cards with the partially colored technique…

(Card #4 & 3 above) These will make nice little gift sets!

On the inside and backs of each card, I used a light ink nearly matching the cardstock for a watermark stamp. It’s so light the camera can barely pick it up, but it can be seen IRL. That said, I will admit that the first one I got so enthusiastic in writing that I wrote over the stamped image forgetting it was there, so it is VERY light. lol! I think next time I’ll do it a smidge darker! The inside has a kitty with a giant 4 scoop cone and says “You make life sweet!” I hesitated to show you this but now it’s a funny story so here we go…

Yeah, I don’t blame you if you can’t see it! The back has two kitty cones and says: “This card was handmade by” leaving room for my signature logo. (I really need to get that made into a stamp some day!)

I saved the best for last… I’m hoping my coloring on this pair reminds you of two famous kitties… can you guess their names?!

Hint: >^.^< N—– and >^.^< H—– (btw: I love how the light hits that cone making a white streak… Note to self: next time draw in a white line just like that!)

Thanks again for the kind comments you guys always leave… it’s always a tread to read them!

~D.Ann

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p.p.s Owning yet another oops… the back of one card managed to get into some of that Liquid Pearls Chocolate and Glossy Accents splattered and smeared across it. I just added a note around the stains: “It wouldn’t be realistic without a little chocolate stain and cat spit, would it?!!” : )

I can’t decide with “flower” card I like more! LOL! They are both just darling and your bead find at JoAnn for the keychains compliment the cards purr-fectly! So glad you shared these gems with us at Inky Paws Challenge!
Hugs,
Debbie

Your card is adorable and I love the keychains too! They are a perfect match. Thank you so much for playing along with us in the Scribbles and Splatters Challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week 🙂

Oh my Gosh!!! I can’t believe you were too late to enter this in the Newton’s Nook challenge because these are beyond adorable and SO darn clever. I seem to have missed seeing that Newton summer treat stamp set but love how you stamped the background. The cards are cute all by themselves but then you paired them up with those kitty ice cream keychains for even more sweetness.